Finally at Chicago

Today was our last day at Washington, D.C. My cohorts and I were happy that finally this week was over because this whole week we needed to wake up very early and travel a lot. I mean it was a good week too because I met a lot of interesting people that gave me an atmosphere how college is in the east. I like how the classes are not bigger than 600 hundreds students but that is just in big classes such as chemistry, biology and you name it. About 70 to 80 percent of the classes have fewer than 20 students; that is still less than my high school classes.

Chicago beautiful airport

Omni Hotels & Resorts

 My cohorts and I met at the lobby of the hotel at 7 AM because the shuttle bus was coming at 7:10 AM. When the shuttle bus arrived to the hotel we put our luggage in the back and headed to the airport for our last trip until three weeks more when we go back home.  We arrived at the airport at 7:40 AM, and our flight was not until 10 AM. As you guys can see we had a lot of extra time and then Alie asked us if we wanted to get something to eat and we said no, but we got water for everyone because there were still six cupcakes left from last night. We each ate a cupcake and we started talking about how excited we were to finally go to Chicago. After two hours of waiting we started boarding the plane. The trip from Washington, D.C to Chicago is an hour long.When we arrived at Chicago I was amazed because Chicago has a huge International airport.  We got a shuttle bus to take us to our hotel and in the ride to the hotel I was admiring the sky’s scrappers that Chicago has. 

 When we got to the hotel my cohorts and I were shock because the hotel we are staying in is very fancy and is a huge building with 25 floors. I was excited because I knew I was going to get a room by myself. When Alie told me I was going to get a room with a king size bed the girls got jealous of me because I was lucky enough to enjoy this one night at the Omni Hotels & Resorts. We didn’t get to enjoy to explore our rooms because we didn’t had a lot of time; our tour was at 2:30 PM and we needed to get something to eat.  We went to get sandwiches at L’Apetito that is just one block away from the hotel. When we finished eating at L’Apetito we came back to the hotel because the girls had leftovers and they decided to come and put it in their room.

After the girls got back from leaving their leftovers, we went to outside to get a taxi so it can take us to Northwestern University. When we arrived to Northwestern we went to the admission office to sign in and went straight were they are going to give us a presentation about the school.  The school offers more than 4,000 courses per year by every six undergraduate schools. Their six schools are: Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, School of communication, School of Education and Social Policy, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music. In the presentation they also talked about that they have more than 180 majors, minors and certificates. They also have two decisions the early decision and the regular decision. They talked about Financial Aid and that they will give financial assistance to those who really need it. One thing I found interesting is that a lot of students from California come to school approximately more than 300 students.

Inside of a Northwestern class

When the presentation finished our tour guide came in and introduced herself. Her name is Marie and she’s going to be a rising senior with a major of Spanish. Marie told us that the school doesn’t run by semester but by quarters. That instead they have three quarters every year and the last quarter (summer quarter) is optional you don’t need to take it. The classes are at least an hour long well that’s depended on the class you taking but almost all of them are about an hour long. Northwestern University is ranked as a top national university by U.S News & World Report. The campus is a mile wide and is next to the shore of Lake Michigan and is just 30 minutes away from downtown Chicago. The university offers over 130 study abroad programs in 50 countries and in the summer you can apply for internships, field studies and research opportunities that Chicago companies offers to the students. There’s a lot of thing students can do in the school so majority of the students are always busy. During the tour Marie showed us a building that Ford donated to the school. I would tell you guys the name of the building but is way too long to remember. Northwestern have more than 480 student organizations and you can even start your own organization with the support of the university. The school does not offer pre classes because they want their students to focus more on their major. The school also offers you to transfer from school you only have to get three signatures from people. What I like about the school is that they have a lot of trees and that builds a good atmosphere in the school. Your classes would not be more than 10 minutes apart; it will at least take you 5-6 minutes.

When we finished our tour we called a taxi to come back to the hotel but traffic was looking ugly around 5 O’clock.  We arrived to the hotel around 5:50 PM so we needed to change really fast because our dinner was at 6 PM at Spiaggia. We arrived at the restaurant at 6:10 because it was close to our hotel just like 6 minutes away. When we arrived we crash with Jamie that she loves her school so much that’s why she ended up working for the school.  Jamie has visit California to go visit 40 school and learn how the school systems works in the west. Jamie fell in love with California and she said that if she would ever move she would move to California. Then the others alumni came they names are: Andrew, Viral, Vermon, Monte, and Chris.  All the alumni said that they chose Northwestern because it felt right and that the school is big but not so big that you will see unfamiliar faces. They said that you will meet interesting people and that they would talk about the weirdest thing ever for hours straight.  That the upper classes will help you out and show and tell you things about the school that you would of never know. Jamie was very interesting to me because she did a lot of stuff in her school. She was a director for theater plays and performances for her school and she directed many performances and one was a standout comedy. I think that’s very cool because is a lot of work that you have to put in for these performances. At the end like always we took a group picture and said our goodbyes.

Tomorrow we go to Chicago and we get our dorms. I wonder who my roommate is going to be. I hope I get along with him and get to know him.

The Group Picture